Negotiations on 22 South Korean hostages are going "very well" despite some "technical problems," and they might be freed by the Taliban later Today, Afghanistan's Ghazni provincial police chief Alishah Ahmadzai told Xinhua on this morning.

Ahmadzai emphasized the 22 South Korean hostages are still alive despite a deadline by Taliban militants.

He did not explain what the "technical problems" meant, only saying he would introduce the whole issue after the hostages were released.

The Taliban killed one of the 23 South Korean hostages on yesterday and the dead body has been found by the police.

Ahmadi said the hostage was killed as Afghan authorities did not show enough sincerity in the talks and the Taliban also wanted to press the South Korean government to accept their demands.

The Taliban probably would kill more hostages at 1:00 AM local time on today (20:30 GMT yesterday) if its demands were not met, a purported Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said.

The 23 South Koreans were kidnapped by Taliban militants on a road in the central Ghazni province on July 19.

Afghan and the US-led coalition forces have cordoned off a suspected Taliban hideout in Qarabagh district of Ghazni to secure the release of the hostages.

Meantime, the Taliban spokesman Ahmadi said militants would execute all hostages if the troops recklessly carried out a storm.

The Taliban also demanded the withdrawal of 200 South Korean troops from this country. The South Korean government said the soldiers would be pulled out at the end of 2007 as scheduled.

Taliban militants have carried out kidnappings in this country over the past two years frequently, and some hostages were killed by the Taliban brutally.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2007)